Hats Off

The charity star of the Irish rock band U2 is, of course, Bono. But the aspiring statesman’s perpetual efforts to eradicate poverty, Third World debt, and the like haven’t stopped his bandmates from doing their part. On Saturday at the Hard Rock Café here in New York, the Edge, the band’s guitarist, who is known for his soft wool hat and Ginsu-hard playing, is hosting an auction to benefit Music Rising, an organization that helps Gulf Coast musicians who have been hard hit by the hurricanes that have devastated the region in recent years. He’ll be joined by Aaron Neville, Les Paul, Joan Jett, Tiki Barber, Christy Turlington, James Snyder, and many other musicians and celebrities. For a look at the Edge from the early eighties, back when he had hair and when Bono was merely a rock star, YouTube provides a lovely clip of U2 at Red Rocks, in Colorado, performing “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” For some humorous speculation about the guitarist’s home life, this more recent skit by the English comedy duo Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse rises to the occasion.—John Donohue

John Donohue, an artist based in Brooklyn, is the editor of the anthology “Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families.”